Solar eclipse can't darken Wall Street's trading day

July 12, 1991|By Los Angeles Times

Wall Street survived the Great Solar Eclipse of 1991. And you can thank your lucky stars, because normally the stock market is not so fortunate.

New York-based astrologer and market forecaster Arch Crawford, whose Crawford Perspectives newsletter has built up quite a following charting stock prices with planetary comings and goings, said that an eclipse usually produces "a big down day" in the market.

Yesterday, the Dow Jones industrial average managed to rise 14.98 points to 2,959.75. But Crawford notes that the market overall suffered through a "very, very choppy day." And when the moon's eclipse of the sun reached its greatest point of coverage in New York, at 3:07 p.m., the Dow quickly slumped about 20

points from its peak, Crawford said.

The unbelievers may put Crawford's expertise in the same class as palm reading but he points to the moon's effect on the tides as an example of cosmic forces at work.

classical astrology certain planetary formations have historically meant either good or bad karma for financial markets, Crawford said. Don't kill the messenger just for reading the charts, he says. Things happen, "But why they should, I don't know."

Given that Wall Street overcame the darkness of the day, isn't that bullish for stocks? Maybe short-term, Crawford says. But he sees a 600- to 1,000-point plunge in the Dow later this summer, because too many other negative cosmic events are, er, on the horizon.